News, History, Writings, Observations & Various Ramblings Deep in the Heart of the Georgia Piedmont

10 April 2016

[tpc] - Q & A with Phil Johnson, candidate for Newton Co. BOC Chair

The Chronicles 10 April '16

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Howdy, folks. Hope all is well out there. A while back, I had asked Phil Johnson, Democratic candidate for BOC Chair, for an interview. He happily obliged. Initially, I was going to email him some questions and then follow up with a phone interview to put together a write-up. I sent the email, and I had the phone conversation, but I've decided to just copy and paste my questions and his responses. I'm doing this because his answers were so thought out and thorough that I didn't really want to filter it or condense it in any way.

Our phone interview went really well. I've known Phil a long time and we've had some great conversations over the years. He's obviously a really smart guy, and he has a very firm grasp of the issues. For the most part, we covered a lot of things that you'll read in his responses.

While Phil and I disagree on some things and have some differences in our core political philosophies, we have a lot in common and I like a lot of what he has to say. I'm not currently endorsing anyone in this race, and I have some doubts about Phil's ability to survive the Democratic primary, but in terms of knowledge of the issues and intelligence, I would think he would probably be at the top of the list of any of the four other candidates running on either side. With that said, I'll also say this - with the campaign team he has assembled, I think he's definitely got a chance. Should be a fun race to follow. And as I've mentioned before, I'm hoping to have interviews with the other candidates in this race in addition to Phil (I've already interviewed Micheal Syphoe). Below is the text of my questions and Phil's answers.

As always, thanks for reading. -MBM *Ed. Note - for those of you reading on mobile devices, you'll notice gaps in the text. That's a formatting issue from me having copied and pasted Phil's response from Microsoft Word. There's probably a way to fix it, but I'm not technically savvy enough to figure it out. My apologies.

~ Q & A with Phil Johnson ~

1) Why are you running for Chair?

A picture of my 10 grandchildren and one great grandchild is the best answer, but you

probably want more.

I began running for Chair almost two years ago, spurred by a disturbing leadership

vacuum in our county government. The pivotal moment came during public debate over

the 2050 Plan, when the current Chair told me he didn't believe he should take a

position on such matters. His lack of an articulated vision and failure to seek consensus

on critical issues before the commission over the past three years absolutely convinced

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~disclosures: *McCart is/was a principal of Alcovy Strategy Group, LLC *all content created & written by MB McCart, M. McCart, or MBM unless otherwise noted. *not all pieces may be entirely factual or accurate; hyperbole & satire strongly utlized. Commentary usually, but not always, labeled as such. *all opinions of MBM's are solely of MBM's. No employer, nor any client of MBM's IC work, endorses the content at TPC*Local advertisers do not necessarily support the opinions of MBM/TPC.*1st Amendment-protected activity. Selah